Of course, Chen Chen was still a long way from achieving that step.
Even the movie’s protagonist, Andrew, could only fly freely through the sky, move buses that weighed a few tons, and block the kinetic force of many bullets. He was still manipulating matter on a macro level. One would need to be extremely proficient to shift this power from the macro to the micro.
This was similar to the principles of global symmetry and local symmetry:
With global symmetry, it was just as it sounded. If all parts of an object could transform according to the same motion, this transformation was global.
As an example, it was like when every actor on a stage moved forward and backward in sync or they all performed the same action. To the audience, the actors were in harmony and everyone was merely a copy of one person. This would be a global transformation.
If a certain invariance could still be maintained even after a global transformation, then it would possess global symmetry.
The other thing would be local symmetry.
To make the performances individualized, the director would ask the actors to create something like a wave or the Thousand-Hand Bodhisattva[1], forming a variety of patterns that changed constantly. In that case, everyone’s actions were different, so the transformation was local.
The individuals would no longer change according to the same rule. Rather, each person of each local part would have their own unique rule.
Similarly, if a certain invariance could still be maintained after a local transformation like this, it could be said to have local symmetry.
Therefore, if a piece of work required local symmetry, it would be much more complicated than if it required global symmetry. Local transformation had stricter requirements when it came to physical laws.
Therefore, the protagonists in the movie could easily crush a car, but they could not directly break down the car on a molecular level because they had no way to shift their control over their power from a global level to a local level.
Chen Chen wondered if, with the limitations of human beings, he could attain control at the molecular level?
After some pondering, Chen Chen only felt that his head was hurting more and more. In the end, he shook his head and gave up the idea of further experimentation.
Chen Chen first turned off the experiment recorder, then left the underground laboratory and returned to the Symphony of the Seas.
In the next few days, Chen Chen would visit the underground laboratory for a period every day, then return to the Symphony of the Seas to rest.
To outsiders, Chen Chen was going there to supervise the project each day because the Eco Science City was about to be completed. Thus, this did not attract any unwanted attention.
Today, after a phone call with his family, Chen Chen glanced at the phone’s screen and was taken aback.
The upper right corner of the phone screen, which indicated the battery level, stated that there was only about 10% left.
However, Chen Chen clearly remembered that when he answered this call, there was still more than 20%.
This was not the first time this had happened. Something similar had happened before, so Chen Chen had changed his phone.
Even so, this problem had occurred again. In that case, it was not the phone’s problem…
Chen Chen looked down and felt around his neck. He touched something hard and round.
It was a pendant.
This pendant was the “Galaxy” that Chen Chen had extracted from the movie Men in Black.
Although Chen Chen found that it did not contain any energy after he extracted it, he thought that there might be other uses for it, so he did not throw it away.
Now, it seemed like he was right. Could it absorb electrical energy?
After some thought, Chen Chen took off the pendant and hesitantly placed it on his phone.
Instantly, the unthinkable happened. Chen Chen’s phone had 10% of the battery power left. When the pendant was placed on top, the phone immediately sent out a window prompt:
“Insufficient power.”
Before the window could end its prompt, the phone went dark and the screen had turned off.
Chen Chen quickly tried to turn the phone on again but found that he could not, no matter what.
“It could absorb electrical energy too?”
Chen Chen’s eyes lit up. He thought for a moment and turned on his computer. After that, he placed his pendant on the laptop and observed the electric meter at the door.
The rate of electrical consumption was higher than before on the meter, but this rate made Chen Chen frown.
This rate of absorption was truly below par, even though it was better than the USB drive.
After all, the USB drive could not actively absorb energy at all. It could only do so passively. Therefore, Chen Chen had to connect it through a massive conductor each time. Otherwise, the immense current would wreck most conductors.
However, this pendant was different. It just had to be near the phone or laptop to be able to absorb some of the electrical energy of the device.
Chen Chen just did not know whether its efficiency could be increased, to the point where even the USB drive would not be rejected?
Furthermore, though energy could be stored within, how should it be extracted?
Chen Chen looked down again toward the interior of the pendant. There was only a dark red star glimmering faintly within. Other than that, it was pitch black.
Chen Chen tried putting the USB drive and the pendant together but nothing happened. The USB drive could not get any energy from the pendant and the pendant could not absorb the USB drive’s energy either.
The energy within the pendant would have to be retrieved through some other method.
Therefore, Chen Chen went to the electrical power control room and used several tools such as wires and plugs, to create a holder for the pendant.
Chen Chen immediately installed the pendant in the holder and connected the other end to an electronic device.
Nonetheless, the device was not supplied with any power.
This meant that conventional methods could not activate the energy within the pendant.
Erm…
Chen Chen thought about it and suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He said at once, “Little X, tell Cheng Cao to get a sniper rifle, drive here to the Symphony of the Seas, and wait for me.”
With that, Chen Chen put away the pendant, turned, and left the power control room.
Half an hour later, Cheng Cao was driving Chen Chen in a Jeep Wrangler to a deserted patch of wilderness.
“Your mission is simple — shoot this pendant from 1000 meters away.”
Although Cheng Cao was mystified, he nodded without hesitation.
Chen Chen dangled the pendant before Cheng Cao’s eyes, then hung it upon a dead tree trunk. Following that, both of them got into the car and drove off for a thousand meters.
Chen Chen recalled that when he first extracted this item, it had not consumed much energy. After all, the pendant did not have much mass. According to the energy conversion formula of extracting items from the USB drive, this pendant weighed no more than twenty grams, which took a total of twenty-five thousand kWh of electricity to extract.
This was the same as 90,000,000,000 joules. With something like TNT, each kilogram could produce 4.2 million joules of heat. In other words, the pendant contained energy equivalent to approximately 21.4 tons of TNT.
Even if all of this energy was released at once, it would only spread to a range of about five hundred meters.
The way by which the Galaxy absorbed energy was through the simplest contact.
If one wished to charge it, it was even simpler. Use copper or silver to construct a hollow metal ball with a diameter of twenty to thirty centimeters. While it was connected to a power source, place the pendant into the metal ball and insulate the outside.
In this manner, all the electrical energy would be absorbed by the pendant.
However, it was not enough that it could absorb electricity. As a tool for storing energy, it must be able to release the said energy.
Now, Chen Chen was trying to figure out how to release this energy…
[1] it’s a dance piece directed by Zhang Jigang.